Latvian Brazilians
Latvian immigrants in Brazil |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (25,000 Latvian Brazilians) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Mainly Southern and Southeastern Brazil | |
| Languages | |
| Predominantly Portuguese | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (mainly Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism), and others | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Brazilian, White Latin American and Latvian people other White Brazilian as Finnish, Scandinavian, German, Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Russian Brazilians |
Latvian Brazilians (Portuguese: Letono-brasileiros, Letões brasileiros) are Brazilian citizens of full, partial, or predominantly Latvian ancestry, and Latvian-born people residing in Brazil.
Brazilians of Latvian origin amount to around 25 thousand, being the largest Latvian community of South America.
The Latvian immigration in Brazil began in 1890, when the first 25 families departed from Riga and arrived in Laguna (State of Santa Catarina). It is estimated that more than 3 thousand Latvians, from Latvia and Latvian communities in Russia, emigrated to Southern Brazil in search of better socio-economic conditions and freedom of worship. An agency for emigration to Brazil was founded in Riga.
In the State of Santa Catarina the Latvian settlers established themselves in the following localities (year): Rio Novo (1890), Rio Oratório (1892), Rio Mãe Luzia and Massaranduba (1893), Jacu-Açú (1898), Ponta Comprida (1899), Terra de Zitnmerman (1900), Schroederstrasse and Linha Telegráfica (1901).
In the State of Rio Grande do Sul in Ijuí (1893).
Then followed Latvian colonies in the state of São Paulo: Nova Odessa, Jorge Tibiriçá or Corumbataí (1906), Nova Europa (1907), Paríquera-Açú (1910), São José dos Campos (1914) and Varpa (1922).
The preservation of the cultures of the Baltic peoples outside their Baltic homeland has been a primary focus of interest and concern for Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians alike, especially since the diverse migratory travails of large segments of their populations over the course of the last century. Essentially, the dispersal and resettlement of so many Baltic people all over the world has forced them to redefine their identity. As minority communities transplanted into host societies quite different in character and geographically remote from their native region, their history has characteristically been one of adjustment and adaptation to new political, socio-economic and cultural, not to mention ecological, environments.
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Wikipedia